"Confessions" Book Giveaway

*UPDATE*
Author Paula Hendricks is giving away a signed copy of her book on my other blog! Come check it out to enter the giveaway!  Below is my original book review posted a few weeks ago.

After meeting Paula Hendricks last summer, I eagerly anticipated reading her first book which was to be released only in a few weeks. “Confessions of a Boy-crazy Girl: On Her Journey From Neediness to Freedom” not only has the cutest cover I've ever seen, but it has great content as well. (So in this case, you can judge the book by its cover.)

Although I looked forward to reading it, I did not expect to learn much. After all, I'm not a boy-crazy girl and never have been, so what was in this for me? Simply a resource for me to share with the younger girls in my life, that is all.

Ha.

Listen up you gals like me: this book is about so much more than hopeless romantics or silly flirts. I don't know a single person out there who doesn't need to take their own journey from neediness to freedom! We all have idols in our lives, be it boys or security or money or dreams.

In her chapter called “Forcing a Fairy Tale”, Paula gives a few reasons why creating your own storybook romance doesn't work, and why it's not wise in the first place. Again, it may not be a boys' love you're in pursuit of, but these four truths are good reminder for that idol that may consume you:

1. You are already loved completely and unconditionally [by the Father].
2. You don't know what is best for you, but God does.
3. You're not actually waiting on a guy to pursue you—you're waiting on God.
4. God has nothing but good in store for those who wait on Him. (pg. 70)

One of the great things about this book is that the author doesn't claim to have it all together. You will not find a “five-steps-to-getting-over-boys-and-then-promptly-be-rewarded-with-marriage” story in this book. That's not to say the author got it wrong, but rather to prove the point that idol-crushing is an on-going battle. We must daily remind ourselves of our need for the One True God, and find our satisfaction only in Him. Because this short life on earth is only the beginning of something much greater. As she says at the end of her book,

“That's why I'm okay with leaving my here-and-now story hanging with a big, fat question mark. My story is not finished. Your story is not finished.

And King Jesus' story is still being written, too. Soon He will return to set up His kingdom and marry His bride (that's us!). And because our stories are wrapped up in His, regardless of the outcome here and now in the guy department, the best is most definitely yet to come.” (pg. 146)

So in the end, not only did I discover a few idols in my life, I discovered I gave myself too much credit in the boy-crazy department. Read this book and you might surprise yourself as well.